I never said I obtained First Class from UNN – Kachikwu

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, has denied making a claim that he obtained a First Class Degree from the prestigious University of Nigeria Nsukka.

An online medium, Premium Times, on Thursday reported citing a presentation by Kachikwu at the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) in Abuja where the newspaper claimed the minister lied about obtaining a First Class Degree from the institution.

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But the minister in a reaction to the report said that he neither misrepresented facts nor made the claims published in the online news medium.

Speaking through Idang Alibi, Director of Press in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Kachikwu said, his official CV and resume is in the public domain and has been submitted to various levels of government and parastatals.

The statement read: “Dr. Kachikwu obtained a “Second Class Honours (Upper Division) degree” from the Faculty of Law in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he graduated as best student in 1978.

“In addition, no First Class Honours were awarded by UNN that year. However, he was on the list for best graduands with Second Class Upper Honours for that year.

“He was the best graduating student in the Nigerian Law School in the year 1979 (the first in class) with multiple prizes (winning 5 out of all 7 prizes given).

“In 1979, the Nigerian Law School had not begun a process of classifying its certificates. That begun many years later. However best graduands have subsequently now been classified in the First Class category by the Law School.

“For Harvard University, his CV correctly states that he was a Distinction graduate for the Master’s degree programme (First in Class) at Harvard University and that he obtained his SJD in a record time of one and a half years. The various academic awards received during his education days are clearly spelt out in his CV/Resume.”

On the “Wikipedia page” that was cited in the report, the statement noted that that Wikipedia cannot be used as an authentic source of referencing or verification of facts considering that anybody that has access to a Wikipedia page can also edit same to suit any narrative they want to claim or push.

“To buttress this fact, we have noted that Dr. Kachikwu’s page has recently been re-edited recently by persons unknown to him and to us.

“On the presentation made at the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) cited by Premium Times, the substance of his assertions was to the effect that he had a first class performance in school and was emphasizing on the need for hard work amongst youths to get them to the top of their game.”